1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing method for a silver halide color photographic material, and particularly to an improved method for enabling cut-down of the processing time after the color developing step. The present invention also resides in a color photographic material for affording a stable image excellent in color reproduction.
2. Prior Art
In general, the standard sequence for processing an exposed silver halide color photographic material includes the color developing step for developing a color image (about 3 minutes and 30 seconds), the bleach-fix (or blix) step for desilverizing (about 1 minute and 30 seconds) and the washing step for stabilizing the image (2 to 3 minutes).
However, there is an increasing demand for cutting down the processing time, as the time limit for delivery of the developed films or prints has been shortened up to date and for the alleviation of development operations is demanded.
Many investigations have been made to reduce the time required for color development. As a fruit of the investigations, it has been proposed to use a development accelerator, for example, by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,950,970, 2,515,147, 2,496,963, 2,304,925, 4,038,075 and 4,119,462, British Patent Nos. 1,430,998 and 1,455,413, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 53-15831, 55-62450, 55-62451, 55-62452 and 55-62453, and Japanese Patent publication No. 51-12422 and 55-49728. Also proposed is the inclusion of a color developer agent, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,719,492, 3,342,559 and 3,342,597 and Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 56-6235, 56-16133, 57-97531 and 57-83565. Further proposed is the use of a silver chloride emulsion, as disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 58-95345, 59-232342 and 60-19140. It has been further proposed to raise the temperature of the color developer or the pH value thereof.
On the other hand, it has been proposed to cut down the time required for desilverizing step by the use of a combined bleaching and fixing bath in lieu of using two separate baths respectively for bleaching and fixing purposes. However, there is found few proposals for accelerating the bleaching-and-fixing step, and only a limited number of accerelators has been reported. As the examples of such accelerators, it may be mentioned to the compounds each having a mercapto group or a disulfide group, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,858 and German Patent No. 1,290,812; the derivatives of thiourea as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,70,561 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 53-32735; and the polyethyleneoxides as disclosed in German Patent No. 2,748,430. However, none of them can accerelate the bleaching-and-fixing step effectively to cut down the time required therefor satisfactorily.
In the conventional technology, it was impractical to set the time for bleaching-and-fixing to not more than 70 seconds since insufficient desilverization and insufficient color restoration were frequently resulted during the successive processing operations, the insufficient color restoration being led from the phenomenon that the cyan dyes were changed to leuco dyes.
Conventional measures for cutting down the time for washing include the addition of a chelating agent, foaming and vigorous agitation. However, satisfactory result has not been obtained by any of such measures. Particularly, the image preserving property is deteriorated if the time for washing is set to not more than 70 seconds. In addition to the deterioration in image preserving property, floating contaminants are left in the washing bath and adhere to the photographic material to cause failure or damages when the time for washing is shortened to not more than 70 seconds and the flow rate of washing water is descreased considerably. Although a variety of fading prevention agents is added to the conventional color photographic material with the aim to improving the image preserving property (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,816,028, 3,457,079, 3,698,909, 3,764,337 and 3,700,455), the fading prevention agent becomes ineffective as the time for the washing step is decreased to not more than 70 seconds.
Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication No. 60-158446 further discloses a method in which phenidone or its derivatives is incorporated in a color photographic material to conduct speedy development, and the color photographic material is developed with a developing solution containing not more than 2 ml/l of benzyl alcohol. In the specification of the publication, there is also described an embodiment in which such color photographic material is developed with a developing solution containing 1 ml/l of benzyl alcohol for one minute, bleached and fixed for one minute and washed for one minute. However, the above method is not sufficient in terms of prohibition of the increase of stains and stability of washing water.
On the other hand, the magenta coupler represented by the general formula (I) set forth hereinafter has a disadvantage that it tends to form magenta stains after the processing therewith through an ordinary process, although it has an advantage that dyes superior in hue are produced thereby. Particularly in case where the processing times for the bleaching-and-fixing step and for the washing step are cut down as is the case of the present invention, serious problems are resulted by the increase of stains. For this reason, the magenta coupler could not be used when speedy processing was required.